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The Intrepid Rogue's Manual of Deception by Atlas Brookings


224 pages - 14 effects, 8 essays and one switch technique. All from one of Mentalism's best and brightest working stars.
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"The Intrepid Rogue's Manual of Deception" is the groundbreaking new book by performing mentalist Atlas Brookings and represents his first major work since his innovative smash hit, Train Tracking, which garnered instant attention and international acclaim.

As anyone who has seen Atlas's Penguin Live Lecture can attest, his material is hard hitting, road tested, and actually looks like real mind reading - a compelling combination that made his the best reviewed Penguin lecture of 2015.


His newest book, The Manual of Deception, is a handsomely presented gold and green hardback volume from the prestigious Haresign Press. It runs to 224 pages long, comprising 8 essays, one switch technique, and 14 effects. While he is known for his propless work, much of the material within encompasses his work with props, and the Hollywood Squares prop also ships with the book.

A brief outline of the contents is included below:



* You'll Never Find a More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy...

This essay asks you to take a closer look at your goals within mentalism, encouraging you to use your analytical skills to determine who is best positioned to help you to achieve those goals as you select the path you'd like to follow. It offers a system for cutting through the hype and nonsense that so often surrounds creators and releases and outlines what Atlas believes are the four archetypes that we most often see within this subculture.


* Quinnfluence

A propless effect that can be used with a single participant or an audience of hundreds, people are asked to think of random bits of information which are subsequently easily revealed. This can be played either as mind reading or influence and is a powerful technique that is always available to you.


* Gesticulate

An incredibly simple and deceptive, self-contained one handed billet switch in which the hand not in use never leaves the pocket.


* The Importance of Being Earnest...

An essay that asks you why you are drawn to mentalism and examines the implications for success that your answer may have.


* The Lexi-Con

A compelling three phase routine in which three words are freely chosen by a participant, two from a list and the third an entirely free choice - yet their words are the only words spelled out in a deck of alphabet cards.


* The Subtle Swindle

An easy and propless means of winning or losing (your choice) at Rock, Paper, Scissors.


* The Untangled Web...

An essay that encourages the performer to consider how their performance is perceived by the audience, asking what they can simplify and streamline in their presentations, and how to approach such a problem.


* High Five

An example of the principles above put into practice, High Five is a close up effect using five numbered business cards. The participant selects a card at random for both the performer and themselves, and their choices are predicted, as is the five digit number that they create.


* Imbalanced

An impromptu and propless murder mystery game in which the performer becomes a human lie detector and hunts the elusive killer.


* Hollywood Squares

A wonderful routine that involves an apparently innocent, yet gimmicked business card (supplied with the book) and which allows the performer to determine what different celebrities up to three participants choose to think of.


* A Head Bloodied but Unbowed...

An essay that emphasizes the importance of developing and improving problem solving skills, complete with an example from Atlas's personal working repertoire that allows dual reality to be performed in audiences of any size, including those that know one another well and corporate audiences - all without any of the drawbacks typically associated with the method.


* Ariadne's Thread

A hands off effect in which the performer gets the participant to randomly think of a number, deal out playing cards onto the table, remember the card at their number, and subsequently reveal that card with ease.


* Market Traitor

A game is played revolving around honesty and Wall Street. Envelopes containing stock picks made by anonymous 'whistleblowers' are laid down before four participants who are then given a free choice of stocks to invest in. After three days of trading, the proceedings are called to a halt as the Securities and Exchance Commission (or FCO in the UK) arrests all four participants for insider trading, and the prediction envelopes are opened, proving that in each case the anonymous whistleblower's information was correct.


* Wasting Time is Only Robbing Oneself...

An essay that examines the formula for finding the most direct route to accomplishing your effects, both in script and actions, and whose intended aim is to help you remove dead time from your show, allowing you to establish and keep the pace moving.


* Don't Make a Mess of Your Message...

An essay dealing with the benefits of learning to adapt a presentation to be able to memorably convey a bespoke message.


* Choicest

Contained within the above essay, the workings of this Blackpool effect (filmed back in 2014) are explained along with the history and reasons behind embedding a message into an effect.


* White Out

A pseudo hypnosis effect in which a participant , apparently in a trance state, is able to select the match to a playing card chosen by another despite nobody - including the performer - knowing the identity of the card. Moreover, when shown the faces of the rest of the deck, they are blank to this participant despite them being clearly visible to the audience.


* It's Still Snowing

A single person version of the above effect, with an influence theme and a prediction tabled before the card is even selected - and the participant selects from a face up fanned pack in which each card is demonstrably different.


* CloudNine

A casual, conversational personality reading that ends with the performer revealing the day, month, and year of the participant's birth - despite apparently none of this information being communicated to the performer. The most common feedback given to Atlas about this effect is that it is better than Isabella's Star, which is no small compliment indeed.


* What Will Your Verse Be...

An essay that deals with what is, in Atlas's experience, the right way and the wrong way to contribute your ideas to the mentalism community, along with a marketing guideline for those seeking to establish and manage their brand.


* The Intrepid League of Super Villainy

A companion to Atlas's "think of a super hero" plot, along with the two person presentation that makes this such an entertaining piece for the set of friends you are working with.


* One in the Chamber

An incredibly simple billet technique that can be applied to nearly any billet routine, a load, switch, and peek that is invisible in which your hands are shown clean throughout and you never go to your pockets. This is Atlas's go to move when performing a Q and A routine.


* It's a Traaaaaaaaaaap!!

A final word of advice to those who would like to chase their dreams and live life on their own terms. It is entirely possible, but you HAVE to know this one thing - and you have to take it to heart.



Oh, and as if all that weren't enough, did we mention that "The Intrepid Rogue's Manual of Deception" doubles as a book test?!

The book also comes with exclusive digital content in the form of professionally designed graphics for all the Stock Market Mentalism and Lexi-Con props.

WHAT ARE THE REVIEWERS SAYING?

"⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆" - MagicSeen Magazine

“I spent this week reading the book cover to cover and it was everything I expected it to be. The physical book is a thing of beauty, everything that you would expect from a book by Haresign Press. It is very appropriate that the words on the cover are inscribed in gold, because the pages themselves are laden with gold as you would expect if you are familiar with Atlas' work. The material is fantastic. My personal favourites are imbalanced, cloud nine, the subtle swindle and choicest. The essays are both enjoyable and enlightening. Atlas' writing style makes this a very easy read and one that I will return to time and time again.”

Mark Chandaue

“...athough I own basically all of Atlas's work, this release, is the one I value the most (yes, even over Train Tracking).”

Nathan H.

“Strong audience tested and refined mentalism effects (Yep, Atlas actually performs the material he writes!), coupled with a wealth of outstanding information in the essays that will give you the means to increase the success of your business. I assure you, hand on heart, there is no fluff in Intrepid - if you are serious about your mentalism and your customers then this purchase will prove invaluable.“

Steve Haresign

“Finally finished my first read of this tonight and immediately started my second read. Atlas has a great style of writing, that makes it easy to pick up and read. There is a wealth of knowledge shared in here throughout the routines and essays and more than once I found myself with a massive smile after reading the method. Can't wait to try out some of this stuff.”

Aaron Smith

“This is something that I'm going to be picking up and reading through many times and I know each read through will teach me something new.  “

Andy Cole

“Best. Book. Ever. Love his writing! Well done! “

Eric Lindberg

“Atlas is a great communicator and gets his ideas over very clearly in a way that makes it a fun and interesting read, as well as informative. The routines are of the high standard I've come to expect from Atlas and there're already a few that I will definitely use. The essays... offer solid real world advice and are refreshingly honest. Straight talking pieces that convey Atlas opinions and reasoning behind his thoughts on performing and growing as a performer. 

I've known for a while that I'd love this book but it has already exceeded my high expectations.“

Darren Woolfe

“My copy arrived yesterday, and I've just finished reading it. 

As others have mentioned, the quality and aesthetic of the book are top notch. It just feels great in the hands--your hands will have withdrawal symptoms when you put it down... enjoyed "Quinnfluence", and really loved "Imbalanced", along with the additional thoughts about how to wrap it up. The essays were also very interesting reads and insightful, with great references to Atlas' personal experiences which will be valuable to many. 

You will glean a lot of gold from this book--especially from that cover--and it will definitely be something you'll want to read through more than once. “

Matthew Mello

“Stellar stuff as usual from one of the best in the business.“

Chris Hurst

“Absolutely spectacular.  I came in with unreasonably high hopes after the last few I've seen from Atlas and yet he somehow exceeded them yet again.  Such incredible ingenuity.

Perhaps the best book on mentalism I've had the good fortune to read...”

Mike F.

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A good book, Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on November 10th, 2017
This is no doubt a good book,
but the reason I gave it 3 stars is because of the misleading ad copy. Benefit of the doubt--I think this may have been accidental.

If you're interested in this for A Head Bloodied But Unbowed,
where the advertising says, "Allows dual reality to be performed in audiences of any size, including those that know one another well without the drawbacks typically associated with the method," you may be disappointed.

Two reasons this ad copy is false:

First, to do this idea in A Head Bloodied But Unbowed for an audience of 3 or 5 or 10, you would need to stand at least 20 feet away from the audience for this to work. Like any other dual reality, this is ideal for a large audience. I would say it is pretty much impossible to do this with a small group unless you want to come up with a reason to walk with your main participant 20 paces away from the table or group and then proceed.

If you are using dual reality as a method or are wanting to use it, you won't find it here. It is a great trick for a larger audience, but CANNOT be used as a close-up effect. The ad says, "audiences of any size."


Second, this is simply NOT a dual reality METHOD and it does not use the dual reality principle.

It is a dual reality EFFECT.

There is some bare-bones scripting for the effect but it is not diabolical or "omg why didn't I think of that!" scripting. It doesn't need to be, because both the main participant and the broader audience shares the same effect--hence it is not using dual reality as a principle.

I think it is similar to Luke Jermay's RGM (from Skullduggery), except in this case you don't need to double lift or top change (and it does not use playing cards).

Also this does not translate to any other dual reality principle or dual reality method you are using. If you do this, it will in fact unravel the mystery for the main participant rather than cement the mystery.

Consider other effects which uses--as its METHOD--dual reality, like Reminiscence or Pseudo-Telepathy in Perception Is Everything by Bruce Bernstein (which got a remake by Marc Paul).

In both these effects, the main participant experiences an entirely different EFFECT from the effect witnessed by the audience. This is not true of A Head Bloodied But Unbowed, where the audience and the main participant experience the same exact effect.

In Reminiscence, for instance, the audience sees Derren reading her mind cleanly and stunningly; whereas the effect she on stage witnesses is that the audience is somehow picking up on her thoughts. It is a beautiful effect and its method is elegant and diabolical. This is due to the layered script in which many sentences DB utters mean one thing to a blindfolded (or eyes-closed) main participant and mean something entirely different to the broader audience who can see his gestures. Of course Derren uses this as a method in many of his mind-shattering effects.

In Pseudo-Telepathy (or Direct Thought of Projection by Marc Paul which is the child of Pseudo-Telepathy), the audience witness the performer reading random thoughts that the main participants think of; whereas the main participants believe the effect was that he ascertained which cards they selected after mixing the cards up among themselves. Hence, dual reality.

In either of these routine--Reminiscence or Pseudo-Telepathy--if you snap a photo of the (more blank) card to show the main participant, rather than cementing the mystery, you are practically educating the main participant as to how it was all done if she discusses it with her friend in the broader audience--and it becomes a neat gag rather than a mystery.

It seems in his attempt to solve the CHALLENGE of the dual reality METHOD (that the main participant may discuss what happened with the broader audience later), Atlas simply arrived at a so-called "dual reality" effect (that does not REALLY use the DR principle).

Additionally, this effect had been independently arrived at and published elsewhere. Atlas says so, but does not name the author or book.

Another matter is personal taste. I could do without the stories or parables in the book. Maybe I'm too dense to discern their meaning, or just eager to get to the meat of the book.

The book does have great mentalism, such as Quinnfluence which is a combo of thought chunneling and PA (unfortunately for me this requires memory work like other Atlas works, and I know myself enough to know I either don't have the same kind of brain Atlas has or I don't have the discipline to memorize all the branches). Maybe I could come up with a crib.
5 of 6 magicians found this helpful.
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Best Mentalism Book of 2016 Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on August 27th, 2016
This is another amazing release from Atlas.
I've been raving about it since day one.
I recommend checking the Cafe.
Nothing but praise, and every bit deserved.

This really is a buy, that you won't regret.
Packed with a pro's insight's, and EXCELLENT effects.

Can't say enough about this one.
It's a Mentalist Must Have imo.

Happy shopping.
2 of 3 magicians found this helpful.
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It's from Atlas... Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on April 29th, 2017
Nothing else. Get this. Thinking is brilliant. Routines are top. Thank you Atlas. You did it again...
1 of 2 magicians found this helpful.
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Another Gem Report this review
Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on March 29th, 2017
So Atlas has done it again, I've left reviews for this everywhere else but here until now. This book is packed and I mean packed with killer, real world do-able effects, methods and subtleties that I guarantee you will include into your act at some point. Don't hesitate to get this.
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